How a 30 years old woman saved Pakistan Nuclear Weapons almost 3 decades ago

Brig Imtiaz reveals 30-year-old secret, By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: As the nation celebrates the eleventh anniversary of
Pakistan’s nuclear tests today (May 28), a shocking 30-year-old secret
has been exposed.
It reveals how a young woman college lecturer, feeling betrayed after
a romance with a nuclear scientist of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant
(KANUPP), had
given a lead to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 1978, which
in turn had led to the dramatic arrest of 12 Pakistani scientists and
engineers, planning
to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear sites at the behest of a superpower.

The startling spy ring was exposed by this female college lecturer of
a Karachi Memon family to the then head of ISI Sindh Brig Imtiaz Ahmed
(Operation
Midnight Jackals fame), only because she wanted revenge from her lover
for being unfaithful. The expose led to the arrest of Pakistani
scientists who were
later given death and life imprisonment sentences by the special
tribunal set up by the then president General Ziaul Haq.

Brig (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed broke his silence of over 30 years to share
this amazing operation with The News on the eve of the 11th annual
celebration of
Pakistan going nuclear. He said that while many people take credit for
saving our nuclear programme, no one actually knows how an unsung
jilted girl had
actually ended up saving Pakistan’s nuclear project out of sheer vengeance.

Brig (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed served as director in charge Internal
Security ISI for several years in Islamabad and later director general
Intelligence Bureau
(IB) in the first government of Nawaz Sharif. The then prime minister
Benazir Bhutto had put him in jail for about three years on charges of
being part
of the operation to oust her in 1989 during her first government.
Later, General Musharraf also put him in jail for four years till his
acquittal by the
Lahore High Court. He is the only spymaster of Pakistan who was jailed
for eight years, after serving 15 years in the ISI and the IB.

Brig Imtiaz recalled that as a lieutenant colonel he was posted as
chief ISI Sindh in 1978. One day he received a telephone call from the
sister of A K
Brohi, who was a psychologist in Karachi. She informed him that she
was treating a female young patient who was suffering from a disease
called “secret
concealment” wherein a patient could not be cured unless he or she
shared this secret with someone.

The lady doctor had confessed to Brig Imtiaz that she had failed to
make the girl reveal the secret and thought maybe he could help her.
He then went to
meet the woman at the clinic. She was very beautiful and had done her
Masters in English Literature and was teaching at a local college.

After some initial talk, the woman finally told him that she was
carrying a very dangerous secret with her but made it clear that she
would not share it
even if she was killed. She told him that she knew very well that the
intelligence people were not trustworthy, as they usually use the
people and then
don’t care what had happened to them. Brig Imtiaz told her that if she
was not ready to trust him, then he was ready to arrange her meetings
with the then
DG ISI General Riaz Mohammad (uncle of MNA Shahid Khaqan Abbasi). But,
she refused. Brig Imtiaz did not lose heart and told her that he could
arrange her
meeting with General K M Arif who was then chief of staff to Gen Zia.
When she refused again, as a last resort Brig Imtiaz offered to take
her to meet
President Gen Zia to share this strange secret which had made her life
a living hell. But, the woman did not agree to any of these names to
share her dangerous
secret as she feared she might be killed.

According to Brig Imtiaz, he could have easily picked her up and kept
her in a safe house for a few days in isolation to make her reveal the
secret but
he did not adopt this traditional style of the intelligence officers.
For a few days, according to his own version, Brig Imtiaz grappled
with the dilemma
of whether to wait or to just pick her up and try extracting
information through traditional methods.

It was during these days that one day while on his way to Clifton and
driving by the consulate of a superpower, he saw a red colour Mazda
car bearing a
private number plate going inside at a very fast speed but he never
really gave it another thought. But later, when he was sitting with
the man in Clifton
whom he had gone to meet, all of a sudden, his mind started working
and he thought of the same red Mazda car and how it was allowed inside
the consulate
within a few seconds. He immediately ordered his men to stay vigilant
outside the consulate and keep a tab on the car when it came out. But
the red Mazda
did not come out of the consulate building till late at night. Next
morning, he went to his office and took out the Karachi metropolitan
map and divided
it into eight sectors. He gave motorcycles and cars to his ISI people
with the directions to keep on roaming in these eight sectors all the
time and note
the registration numbers of all such red Mazda cars which were very
few in those days. This exercise continued for a month but there was
no big success.
He kept on checking the registration numbers of red Mazda cars but no
suspect was found.

One day, he got a red Mazda number which was rented out to someone
from a Tariq Road showroom. One Rafique Munshi had rented that car. He
had also given
his address to the showroom. He was living in Garden East in MPA
hostel in a suite. When the credentials of Munshi were checked, Brig
Imtiaz came to know
that he was working in the KANUPP as an engineer. The brigadier was
immediately reminded of the female lecturer and went to meet the Memon
lady. He again
called the sister of Dr A K Brohi and requested her to arrange a
meeting with her patient.

During the meeting, he suddenly asked the lady whether she knew
Munshi. As he uttered the name, she started weeping. It took her a
while to regain her
composure but then she started sharing the secret which she was not
ready to share earlier. She admitted that she and Munshi had been
class fellows at
Karachi University. Both had a serious love affair and he had promised
to marry her. She said that they had also developed an illicit sexual
relationship.
But then he suddenly disappeared from Karachi and she could not trace
him anywhere.

After four long years, he suddenly resurfaced in Karachi and was a
totally changed man. Before going into hiding, he was a poor guy, but
now he was loaded
with dollars and leading a luxurious life. She also saw the photograph
of a very beautiful foreign girl in his wallet. She then admitted to
the brigadier
that she was still dating Munshi but felt betrayed and cheated as she
believed he had spoiled her life. She told Brig Imtiaz that she was
thinking to take
revenge from him but then she could not dare because it might have
also harmed her.

Then the secret broke. The woman told him that one day, when Munshi
left for his office, he left his safe open. She looked at the
half-open safe and could
not resist the temptation to check its contents. She was startled to
see piles of dollars inside along with some official secret files.
These papers were
related to Pakistan’s nuclear sites and installations. This
information was enough for Brig Imtiaz to proceed further as he
understood the nature of the
secret the woman was carrying with her for so many months and becoming
sick in the process.

He asked her to help him get a key to Munshi’s suite so that he could
himself inspect the stuff. She provided him the alternate key. With
the help of a
70-year-old key-making expert Brig Imtiaz managed to open the foreign
made safe and made copies of documents which were primarily questions
and the answers
related to Pakistan’s nuclear sites and the people working there.

Obviously Engineer Munshi was working for the secret agency of a
superpower which used to provide him questions and he used to give
them the replies to
those questions related to the nuclear programme. This was the same
man who was seen taking his red Mazda car inside the foreign
consulate. Brig Imtiaz
did not touch the dollars and kept putting the documents back after
making copies. He now wanted to capture the whole gang, as he came to
know through
the papers that the agents of this secret agency of a superpower were
also present in Kahuta and other important installations where the
nuclear programme
was being executed.

Munshi was simply playing the role of an agent between the foreign
secret agency and Pakistani scientists working at those installations.
After a labour
of ten months and armed with necessary information, the matter was
then brought to the notice of DG ISI Riaz Mohammad.

In the meantime, Brig Imtiaz came to know through those secret
communications through papers that Munshi was to meet a foreign secret
agent at Hawkes Bay
Karachi to hand over some documents. He decided to arrest them red
handed. He only took his driver along. When the two were exchanging
documents, he tried
to arrest them; and to his surprise, the agent shot at him but missed.
But he, along with his driver, overpowered them and shifted them to a
safe house.

Soon they had the names of 12 other officers at Kahuta and other
places who were part of this plan to sabotage the nuclear sites.
According to the plot,
these nuclear scientists and engineers working on the payroll of a
secret agency, were to develop huge technical sabotage of the
programme to an extent
that it could not have been repaired or fixed for some years to come.
They all were arrested from various places in the light of information
given by Brig
Imtiaz.

It was revealed that actually the foreign secret agency had deputed
five handlers from Washington to deal with the nuclear programme of
Pakistan. These
five foreign handlers included two girls, one of whose photos was seen
by the heartbroken girlfriend of Munshi which made her jealous and she
decided to
take revenge.

Brig Imtiaz was immediately called to Islamabad to give a briefing to
General Ziaul Haq The five handlers were immediately told to leave
Pakistan and General
Zia was said to have called the president of this superpower to
register a protest that how his country’s secret agency had tried to
sabotage Pakistan’s
nuclear programme. Zia was said to have expressed extreme displeasure
over this espionage of nuclear programme. But, the president of that
superpower was
said to have requested Zia not to make it a public issue as it might
tarnish his country’s image and Zia obliged him.

A special tribunal was set up to try all those Pakistani scientists
and engineers on high treasons charges. The ringleader Munshi was
sentenced to death
while others were awarded life sentences by the court. But one fine
morning, much to his shock, Brig Imtiaz learned that President Zia had
commuted the
death penalty of Munshi on the recommendation of a top Sindhi leader
in exchange for his political support to the Zia regime.

After the arrest of Munshi, Brig Imtiaz met the lady lecture whose tip
had led to unfold this international conspiracy against Pakistan
nuclear programme.
She was devastated and feeling very depressed as she told the ISI
officer that she loved Munshi dearly but as he had betrayed her she
could not spare him.

The woman had managed to take her revenge from her lover while Brig
Imtiaz was happy to unearth such a big conspiracy for which he was
later decorated
with a Tamgha-e-Basalat by the president of Pakistan for his services
to the nation.

“Listen, almost 30 years have passed since this incident, but till
date I can’t forget how a heartbroken woman’s commitment to herself to
take revenge
from her lover had led to the unfolding of this secret, which, if not
shared, might have deprived Pakistan of its nuclear assets and we
might not be celebrating
this day,” remarked Brig Imtiaz while lost in the memories of the past.